help itching wont stop!!!

[pepper49]

Can anybody help my horses i have two and both r itching like mad and making it bleed in some parts, it has been going on 4 2 months or more!!!! i have tried everything and the vet is at a loss as to what it could be???? any help would be great, i have tried washing her with all sorts rugging and even not rugging and nothing is helping any advice would b great!!

 

[1275gta]

Have you checked for lice?

 

[pepper49]

Yeah everything!!!! i have washed with all sorts of shampoos for all sorts of insects etc!! nothong, they have had so many baths its unbelievable!!

 

[Nickijem]

Have you tried changing her diet at all? My horse was very itchy when I fed him Alfa-A.

 

[Marnie]

I'd agree this may be something worth checking out, if my mare is fed any cereals such as barley, she really itches - she would even throw herself on the floor!

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

I'd revisit the lice option pepper. Difficult coz I don't know what you've tried already but some of these shampoos often make wild claims when it is really veterinary strength stuff you need. If it started 2 months ago that's text book for when lice wake up and start multiplying. A livery on our yard has been going through the same worries. Poor hairy pony driven mad by itching and losing patches of hair left right and centre. Tried louse powder. No difference. Tried no hard feed at all for a month in case of an allergy. No difference. So got the vet up a couple of days ago with a view to doing a skin scraping. Vet leant on pony while chatting. Vet moves away from pony and shock horror, where the heat of her body had been, loads of lice had come to the surface! They look like tiny bot eggs but if you watch REALLY carefully, they start to move (and your skin starts to crawl)!!! The solution is Frontline spray from the vet. You need a LARGE bottle and it's about the £40 mark but it drops lice dead in their tracks. This lady's pony was Frontlined and within a minute or 2 poor pony was going loopy with itching as all the lice started coming to the surface of the hair to die. Half an hour later, pony happy, passengers all dead! Now all his companions need doing too!

 

[imafluffybunny]

I know a number of horses that Alpha A make them itch like mad, I also had a horse who itched himself till he bled because he was allergic to the straw, he had been kept on straw for years but suddenly he became allergic, as soon as i took him off it and on to shavings he stopped scratching.

 

[pepper49]

Thanks for all your advice, i have hanged the bedding and the vet had taken a biopsy with no real explenation!!! has been washed with seleen and she is clipped so if it was lice i thought the vet would have picked that up??? but i will ask him about frontline, and as for her feed she has had top spec so changed that to a cool mix and hi-fi lite with sugarbeet!! still if u have any further advice please do thanks alot everyone who has taken the time to read this

 

[laura_1983]

garlic in his feeds stops my pony from itching, dont know how well it works with other horses though!!